Made’s Blog

I have a friend from India doing an internship in Indonesia, Jakarta to be exact. He’s been in Jakarta for 5-7 months already. He came to Singapore to extend his visa. I had an honour to be involved in a very good discussion with him. It went like this:

………………

TOURISM
Yousuf: “Man, you’re country is actually very attractive. I went to places like Bali, Bromo, etc, and they’re awesome. Too bad that they’re not marketed as good as the other ASEAN countries like Malaysia or Thailand. Anyways, these places are unbelievable. I had a good time there.”

Made: “Yeah, man. That’s why now I urge people to go to Bali instead of Thailand.”

………………

CORRUPTION
Yousuf: “I went with my Indonesian friend with a motorcycle. I think we rode too fast, exceeding the speed limit. Hm… maybe. Then, there was a policeman approaching us. He said, ‘you have exceeded the speed limit. I have to bring your motorcycle to the court, and in the court your fine would reach 200 thousands. But if you pay 100 thousands now, then you can bring back your motorcycle and don’t need to go to the court.”

Made: “then, did you pay him?”

Yousuf: “My friend didn’t bring enough money, but i had. He told me to give the money to the policeman, but I don’t want to. I said to the policeman, Sir, I have enough money, but I dont want to pay you 100 thousands. You can take the motorcycle, and give me the receipt saying that you have taken it.”.

Yousuf: “Then the policeman said, ‘but It’s the court process will take days, and I need to take your motorcycle. It’s gonna be troublesome”

Yousuf: “I said, yes, Sir. You can take it, and let me have a receipt from you.”

Made: “ic”

Yousuf: “I think the policeman didnt want to be troubled, then he let us go”

Made: “why didn’t you pay the money?”

Yousuf: “Dude, if I pay the money, how can I help your country get rid of the corruption. India used to have same problem with corruption, but one thing we learn from there is to keep our dignity and pride. I prefer not to pay the policeman. We fight for our rights, for every single cent which belongs to us.”

Made: “How is that possible?”

Yousuf: “Everything is corrupted in India, except our courts. We have a very good legal system. Even government cannot sway the court’s decission. Everybody respects it. If we don’t like something, we can always fight for our case in the court.”

Made: “I notice that we don’t have a very good legal system, not much respect from the people. The majority will win most of the time, though it’s against constitution.”

————–

So, the first item on my wishlist for my country, Indonesia, would be:
1. A fair legal system for everyone

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 7th, 2006 at 2:45 am and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.